


Happy Birthday to Me

by PagingPaige



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-04
Updated: 2013-10-03
Packaged: 2017-12-28 09:05:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/990220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PagingPaige/pseuds/PagingPaige
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Narrative for an RP I was in.  I just adore Pepper.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 2

She would have stayed in Malibu if not for the fact that there was a very important document in her office at Stark Tower. It couldn’t wait and quite frankly, she wasn’t going to let his pettiness get in the way of her work when all she was trying to do was help him. Why was it that they could take a step forward and then end up going three steps back over something so ridiculous? Maybe Loki was right. That was a dark path to go down and Pepper tried to push it away. She steeled herself before slipping back into Passages and then into her office as Stark Tower. Her purse went on the edge of the desk as she took her seat, rifling through the drawers for the file she needed.  
  
It wasn’t where she thought it was and her brow furrowed as she tried to think of where it could be. There were more files on the conference table and in her haste to get to them, she knocked over her purse, the contents of it scattering on the floor. Pepper didn’t give it a second thought as she flipped through the files. “Finally,” she murmured, upon finding the file. She returned to her desk and set the file down as she began picking up the items on the floor. The last thing she picked up was the key card that had been inside her birthday card. Her gaze flicked to the floral, impersonal card and she frowned. Where did it lead? She hadn’t asked, but as she turned it over in her hands she recognized it as an access card for the elevator.  
  
He’d told her to stay to the lower floors but she didn’t quite care at the moment. She wanted to know what his idea of a birthday present was. Leaving her things behind, Pepper made her way to the elevator and slipped the card into the slot above the buttons. The elevator moved upward, to where he spent all his time. Her brow furrowed again, this time wondering exactly what he was up to. The doors opened to a sitting room of some kind and while it wasn’t exactly _her_ , it wasn’t _him_. Her eyes found the colorful desk ornament on the low glass table and she stepped toward it, a smile forming despite her best efforts to stay mad at him. He was being _childish_ and she wasn’t going to indulge it. End of story.  
  
Pepper reached out to set it into motion, the multicolored balls soothing her anger for a brief moment. He knew her, when he bothered to try. It would be so much easier if they were both from the same time, but...maybe it was a good thing. Maybe it was a sign that whatever it was that might have been, wouldn’t work. “Damn him,” she muttered, her gaze catching the elephant pencil cup. He was her weakness. Loki was right. If he ever needed a way to get to Tony, she wasn’t it. He would rescue her, that was what he did, but was it out of a sense of what was right? Or did he really care? She didn’t know and she didn’t think he would ever discuss it, least of all with her. But she’d laid her cards on the table, hadn’t she? Loki knew how she felt about Tony. Captain Rogers knew. Thor knew more than all of them, considering her Tony’s wife. And yet, the man in question was _oblivious_. Completely, utterly, and hopelessly oblivious. Or maybe he knew how she felt and purposefully kept her at arm's length, as Loki suggested.  
  
“So much for not going there, Potts.”  
  
She would have left the key card but it didn’t seem worth it. The perpetual motion device would be sign enough that she’d been there. Pepper left, back down the elevator. She collected the file from her office and returned to Malibu. Distance would help and thankfully, she had a great deal of work that she could bury herself in. Or...Given Felicia’s latest conversation with her sisters, perhaps she could do with more time in Las Vegas. It would mean more work while she was actually through the door, but how was that a downside? It meant less time to be distracted and Felicia would appreciate the time. Question it, probably, but appreciate it all the same. Tony was so oblivious, she doubted he would even notice. First though, she needed to talk to Thor about the myth he dangled in front of her.


	2. Happy Birthday to Me

She thought about giving the day to Felicia but in the end, she wanted to keep her memories to herself and if she was through the door, there was less of a chance of the other woman gaining more ammunition for arguing with Mr. Stark. The last thing she needed now was for Felicia to get it in her head that lecturing him would be useful in any way and she knew her Vegas counterpart had quite a bit on her plate as it was. That was a problem she’d tackle when it started to affect her time here. Her usual work consumed her morning, phone calls to her various government contacts to cement a relationship that would benefit them in the future, a meeting with the Stark Industry Board of Directors, a teleconference with the VPs, and a nice chat with the director of Human Resources as well, not to mention the dozens of press releases that needed a cursory glance and a ridiculous number of charts, graphs, and reports to wade through. At noon, she gave up. She excused herself from the phone call she was on, turned off her computer, gathered her things, and left without a word. She crossed into Las Vegas, turned around, and walked right back through. This time, Pepper found herself in Malibu. Not Mr. Stark’s house, but her own apartment. It was fifteen and a half minutes exactly from her front door to Mr. Stark’s at 5:30am when she went in to work and seventeen minutes exactly when she returned home anywhere between 7pm and 12am. She had begun renting this particular apartment four years ago, cutting her commute by almost twenty minutes. Of course, she had access to a room at Mr. Stark’s house if she felt the need, but she had only taken up that offer for two and a half months and she vowed to never stay the night again after he came home.   
  
Her apartment was quiet, clean, and it hardly seemed like someone lived there. The door opened up to the main room, which held the living space and kitchen area that were separated by a white counter top. The walls were a delicate cream color that could’ve been almost white if not for the bright white couch and armchair she had centered around a modern looking glass coffee table. A Thomas Kinkade seascape was hung behind the armchair and instead of facing the opposite wall (and a TV that wasn’t there), the seating area faced her balcony. The first thing she did after slipping off her shoes was to pull back the curtains, revealing the view of the ocean before her. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, indicating that someone was calling her, but she didn’t care. It could wait until tomorrow, when she was focused. The small square of technology went on her counter after being turned on silent, save for if Mr. Stark texted or called. She didn’t think he’d bother with another argument at the moment and she wasn’t in the mood to pretend that she didn’t care about him as much as she did. She found herself hoping he’d forget her birthday as usual and spend the day immersed in whatever tech project he had going on.   
  
Their last conversation played over and over in her mind, each time making the pain just a little bit worse. Try as she might, she couldn’t forget the question he posed to her. _Would_ Thor save Tony over his brother if it came down to it? She didn’t think so, not with how things had gone that day in her office. The two of them just didn’t trust each other and although she knew Thor had a very strong moral center, she had a feeling he still thought his brother could be saved. She could understand that, support it even. If anything happened to Mr. Stark, she wasn’t sure how far she’d go to to get him back.  
  
“That’s not true.”  
  
Pepper knew how far she was willing to go. That was why she hated her birthday, not that she’d ever let on about that. It was hard for her to forget those three months, but she didn’t talk about it to anyone. She couldn’t. She didn’t _trust_ anyone enough to talk to them about it, and she resolutely would not bring it up with him because what he had been through was far worse than her worry and anxiety. The debacle with Obadiah had distracted her quite thoroughly as well, and that helped. Work had helped her cope while Tony was kidnapped and it helped her focus again once he came home. She’d worked day and night, doing her best to provide support for Jim, aiding in a rescue effort. At first it was easy to believe that he was still alive, that he could survive whatever happened, but after six weeks it got progressively harder. She’d refused to give up hope, clung to it as she buried herself in the luxurious fabrics of the bed she’d claimed as hers in his house. She would’ve spent every penny she had trying to get him back and if that wasn’t enough, she would’ve tried to get there to look for him herself. At least, that’s what she told herself. It had been easy to realize then that she cared about him.   
  
Absence makes the heart grow fonder after all, right?  
  
But once he’d returned it was back to business. It started with a press conference and it all went downhill from there. She opened a bottle of wine as the memories started to come back to her. Changing his arc reactor and having it put in a display case for him; the benefit and subsequent almost kiss that left her standing on the balcony, waiting for him to come back like some sappy _girl_ while he went off to Gulmira and got shot at; catching him trying to get out of the suit and the overwhelming emotions _that_ inspired; the conversation in his workshop where she almost walked out. Her life came pretty damn close to _revolving_ around him. She’d do anything for him. What were a few cuts and bruises? Life threatening situations? Blowing up the arc reactor at Stark Industries hadn’t been too bad. Becoming CEO had been stressful and all the more difficult thanks to his erratic behavior, but she’d managed for a week. Watching Tony get attacked in Monaco, coming to his aid? That one had been harder only because she’d been afraid they wouldn’t get there in time. And then the slew of bad decisions he made because he’d been dying and refused to trust her with that information. That hurt the most in some ways. And then he went and rescued her from the Expo, _kissed her_ , quite a few times, and they’d been about to discuss the feasibility of a relationship when she ended up in Felicia’s head.   
  
Wine was definitely a good idea. It probably wouldn’t hurt to talk to someone either, but besides Natasha (who was the closest person to a friend she had), who else did she have that was here? No one. She didn’t have anyone. Pepper wasn’t even entirely sure she had Tony, whatever that meant. There was Thor, of course, but in the same way there was Captain Rogers or Doctor Banner. She couldn’t burden any of them though, not when their problems were infinitely more important. The thought of it was laughable and that was exactly what she did; she laughed, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to cry.   
  
“This is ridiculous,” she muttered to herself as she finished off her glass and poured another. Pepper was calm, cool, and collected, not emotional or argumentative. She was a supporting figure for Tony, someone to take care of him after he went off to save the world. An employee. She had to get over this bullshit and fast before things got worse. She eyed the bottle of wine.  
  
“After I finish this. Then I’ll get over it,” Pepper promised herself. It was late afternoon now, nearly dinner time, but she didn’t care. A bottle of wine, a nice soak in the tub, and then sleep. She’d be right as rain in the morning. Maybe. She eyed her phone. If she didn’t make any stupid decisions, she’d be fine. It was just a matter of deciding if she wanted to do something stupid or not.


End file.
